Albany speaker urges $200M revitalization funds be used for vacant‑building rehab, homeownership and services for unhoused

Jesse Summer, introduced to the committee as a local business owner and army veteran, told the Senate Cities 2 Committee he supports directing downtown revitalization funds toward rehabilitating vacant buildings, increasing homeownership opportunities, and creating decentralized, dignified housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.

Summer framed his remarks around a column he published that proposed six “pillars” for Albany’s rejuvenation. He urged state decision‑makers to prioritize returning 873 vacant buildings to productive use and to use an interagency coordinator to streamline zoning enforcement, tax liens and transfers of titles to the Albany County Land Bank. He argued those steps would enable rehabilitation and paths to deeded homeownership for low‑income tenants in historically Black neighborhoods.

Summer criticized one high‑profile proposed use of funds — a new stadium — and said larger contractors tend to capture large infusions while small, local contractors could produce different outcomes. “Jeff Buell doesn’t need another dime of New York taxpayer dollars, and especially not for the installation of a Liberty Square stadium,” Summer said. He urged an approach that prioritizes returning buildings to the tax rolls and creating homeowner pathways rather than new, large projects that he said would benefit “a mega landlord.”

Summer also linked school facility investment to public safety, saying “New York’s public schools … stand in the breach against lethal disorder on the streets,” and he told the committee he supports investment in school facilities and after‑school programs as part of a broader public‑safety and youth‑development strategy. He referenced the Rochester School Facilities Modernization Program Act in his remarks and expressed concern the governor’s proposed $400,000,000 for downtown revitalization appeared effectively reduced in practice.

On homelessness policy, Summer proposed decentralized daytime clinical service sites and overnight sleeping pods that would provide shelter, laundry and storage and convert to office space during daytime hours for service delivery. He criticized the strategy of sending clinicians to intervene on the street as “a failed one” and said people experiencing homelessness had asked for alternative arrangements.

Committee members asked follow‑up questions. Sen. Feige said a study was planned for the $200,000,000 portion Summer discussed and emphasized that the Empire State Development (ESD) would play a central role; Sen. Leo Webb and others expressed interest in continuing the conversation and in the complexity of land‑bank and tax incentive remedies. Summer said he worked backward from visible neighborhood problems — vacant buildings, panhandling, parking — in designing his six pillars.

Summer closed by asking the committee to consider prioritizing homeownership pathways and smaller‑scale rehabilitation projects and by dedicating a brief tribute in memoriam to his late mother, Dr. Holly Cheever.